Page 64 of The Sun
“So, that little thing with Elias this afternoon. It sounded like you two have been seeing each other. And I love you, but you and Brandon are kind of a thing, and that’s just shitty.”
“Brandon and I are,” I exhaled and glanced out the window, staring at the Tweety Bird mud flaps of an eighteen-wheeler. “It’s complicated.”
“Care to enlighten me?”
I didn’t want to explain anything right then, so I settled on: “We aren’t serious. I mean, we haven’t talked about it or anything.”
“Whatever. So what happened with you and Elias to cause thatDays of Our Livesoutburst?” That was a loaded question.
I didn’t want to lie. I didn’t want to tell the truth. The truth would then involve me outing Brandon, and half the truth would make her think I was a two-timing, dry-humping whore. I drew an invisible heart on the glass while debating about how much I should tell the girl I once told everything. “Elias unexpectedly kissed me Saturday.”
“What do you mean unexpectedly?”
“Like, he came up to my car and just grabbed my face and kissed me.”
“Okay.” Daisy leaned over the steering wheel, craning her neck to check for traffic before whipping the car onto Highway 35. “Not gonna lie. That’s kinda hot.”
“Yeah. Well. Not when you find out it was evidently after he’d hooked up with Jenny.”
Daisy stuck her tongue out and clutched at her throat while making a horrific gagging sound. “Sick. Okay, so you were totally validated in your little explosion today then.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“God, what a dick though!” Daisy kept ranting about what an asshole Elias was, and I wanted the conversation to end, so I turned the volume up. Two beats into the song, Daisy turned it back down. “I mean, what’s wrong with him? Seriously? That’s disgusting. And what’s going to happen when Brandon finds out?”
“He’s not gonna find out.”
Daisy raised both eyebrows. “You don’t think anyone overheard you two in the hall today? Or at the very least took notice when he got about half an inch away from your face?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re Brandon McClure’s unofficial girlfriend, and Elias is the unofficial bad boy every girl wants. People noticed.”
I turned the radio up as far as it would go that time, and Daisy got the message.
The bellover the door jingled when we stepped inside Magpie’s.
The smell of incense nearly knocked me over. Daisy coughed, swatting the thick smoke curling up from one of the burners away from her face.
Magpie sat behind the counter, puffing on a wooden pipe and staring through her John Lennon glasses. “What brings you two pretties in today?”
“I came to see Ziggy,” Daisy said.
Magpie lifted one bushy eyebrow, her gaze shifting from me to Daisy. “You or the sheriff’s girl?”
“Me.”
“You eighteen?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
My mouth dropped open, and Daisy placed a single finger underneath my chin to shut it. Daisy was six months away from being eighteen. God, she lied like it was her job.
Magpie cleared mucus from her throat before shouting for Ziggy, telling him he had a customer. Daisy led me around the maze of shelves and counters.
When we were out of Magpie’s sight, I leaned over and whisper-hissed in her ear. “What are you doing? Who’s Ziggy?”
“This guy.”
